I FINALLY completed work on my dressing room and I thought I'd share it with you all now...there was a slight sense of urgency to this post because if we do the renovations on our house that we're planning, that room is going to be demolished. *SIGH* For that reason I did not quite finish this room as I would like (ie. I wanted to dip dye the bottoms of the curtains, considered mod podging vintage wallpaper over the table in the center etc.) What's the point since I have no clue what I'll do in my new dressing room (which will have more space). So it's as done as it's ever going to get. And I'm so happy to have the space for my clothes (and my husband's), although it does mean we cannot have overnight guests because it's the only other bedroom besides the master. But a girl has got to have her priorities straight (particularly when it comes to clothes/shoes). LOL

Here are some before/during photos I had to show as this was a quite a bit of work, slowly over about a year. This first photo is the only one I have that shows most of the fairly small room (6'11"x12'6"), taken right after I moved in.

After that I decided to paint the room teal, which turned out to be a dumb idea in such a small room because it became very dark, despite the fact that there's a fairly large window (I blogged it once here - it was so hard to photograph I don't have many photos of that first transformation - but some are on Flickr here). With the newest version of the space, the closet was torn out (the doors were heavy pieces of wood that drove me INSANE), the walls were patched up, ugly-ass laminate floor was removed and new maple hardwood was installed (clickable - so thankfully we can reuse if we want in the new space). Here are a couple photos of the closet and floor demo:

And here is a photo of the new floor right after we installed it:

Some new baseboards, paint, rods and shelving installed, curtains (to close off the clothing storage; I kept my existing windows curtains), accessories and voila, a useful and kinda cute dressing room. A whole bunch of photos of the new room are after the jump. But here's a quick peek:

Reader Comments (38)

I've been wanting a dressing room for a little while now, but since my lifestyle has kind of changed to spending a lot of time outside (ie- being really hard on clothes and wearing the same work pants a million times before washing them) I've put the thought on the back burner for a bit.

But now I want to give it a go! I'll definitely come back to this post for ideas. :)

That looks great! If that room does end up being demoed in the future I hope you'll be able to save the new flooring you put in because it's lovely, it would be shame to tear out all the beautiful new things and not be able to reuse them.

We have a guest room that I am DYING to make a dressing room, but unfortunately we absolutely have to have a place for people to stay. But if I could make it one this would absolutely be my inspiration.

I have a dressing room even smaller then yours, with doors that turn open and i decided to wallpaper it with teal..... I am thinking of changing it completly for a long time. Your setup seems perfectly feasible. But like you, I propably won't enjoy it for a long time.... I am looking for a newe house.

Kim! I really love it! I loved it before in its girly teal, but now it's just so wow. So clean, organized and with pretty touches. Love the light. Love the necklace display. Tell you what, instead of renovating, why don't you buy a new house and I'll buy this house! I love it so much.

so let me get this right, this is a temp room until the time comes that it will undergo a reno? i understand now why the space is sort of a hodgepodge design crisis lacking strong identity: ie sterile and effete; lacking c&c functionality, "dressing room" coherence and more importantly in design, layers (of suitable lighting and appropriate decor - hello mirror??); and may i suggest you revisit your "too short" window treatments. but for a short-lived space, in spite of a design vision deficit, pro-tempore lacklustre will suffice until which time the complete transformation is undertaken- we look forward to viewing the final product! (interior design tidbit: kim, don't settle for "bandaid" mediocrity; do re-consider that guest room - there is such a thing as successful dual design purpose!)

Thanks for your comments!!!Peggy - SOLD! (LOL)Amalia, I already have 3 mirrors on the wall outside the room and mirrored closet doors in the bathroom adjacent this room. Adding yet another mirror meant not really have room for the framed jewelry organizer. So for now - no mirror. The new dressing room will certainly have a full-length mirror.

Thanks!Jay, it's just a vintage frame I've used held onto for a few years now (it used to frame a whiteboard in my kitchen, and then framed a portrait on canvas in that room when it was teal) with some pegboard I bought at Home Depot, cut to fit in the frame, and I nailed it in place. (But before nailing it I painted it with chalkbaord paint). Then I went to about 5 stores around Ottawa looking for decent hooks made for pegboard to hang the jewelry, which I finally found in 2 different sizes at Home hardware.